RIM BlackBerry Presenter Frees PowerPoint Presentations from PC

Research In Motion's BlackBerry Presenter accessory allows users to display a PowerPoint presentation on a projector or monitor directly from a BlackBerry smartphone, as opposed to relying on a laptop. RIM will display the BlackBerry Presenter at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Although the BlackBerry has been heartily challenged in the mobile arena by competitors such as Apple's iPhone, RIM is attempting to maintain its business edge while making forays into the consumer space.

LAS VEGAS-Research In Motion on
Jan. 6 announced the BlackBerry Presenter, a device that plugs into a projector
or monitor to allow the user to give PowerPoint presentations from a BlackBerry
smartphone. The announcement comes as RIM and other tech companies head here to demonstrate their latest products at the
Consumer Electronics Show, held Jan. 7 to 10.
RIM is attempting to cast the BlackBerry Presenter as a product that can
spare space-strapped road warriors from having to bring a laptop on short
business trips.
"Mobile professionals are always looking to carry less when traveling,"
Glenn Laxdal, vice president of Product Management for RIM, said in a
statement. "BlackBerry Presenter equips mobile professionals with a
simple, secure and convenient way to deliver presentations directly from their
BlackBerry smartphone, giving them the freedom to leave their laptops
behind."

The device, which is being displayed at CES and will be available at an unknown
later date for $199, weighs 140 grams and supports most PowerPoint animations
and transitions. RIM claimed that no additional file processing will be
required in order to display the slides, and that users will be able to "view
speaker notes, loop presentation slides and even reference information on one
slide while displaying another."

For those who like to wander around the boardroom during their presentations,
the BlackBerry Presenter supports roaming of up to 30 feet between it and a
BlackBerry smartphone.

Although the BlackBerry line of smartphones continues to be popular in the
enterprise and among consumers, RIM has found itself challenged in recent years
by the rise of competitors such as Apple that have sought to provide much of
the same business-oriented functionality while incorporating popular
applications such as iTunes.

As evidenced by its recent smartphone releases, RIM's response to this
challenge has been to emphasize many of its key strengths. For example, the BlackBerry
Bold 9700 smartphone, released in November, is a sleeker and
somewhat smaller version of the popular Bold 9000. In addition, RIM has
been tweaking-but has made no radical departures from-its traditional mobile
operating system model with the recent BlackBerry OS 5.0, which offers a faster
browser experience and speedier JavaScript and CSS
processing.

RIM has also made tweaks to its BlackBerry server line. The BlackBerry
Enterprise Server 5.0, announced in May 2009, was designed to improve security
for e-mail, organizer data, instant messaging and enterprise applications; in
addition, it allows IT administrators to use a Web-based interface and
"push" mandatory applications and updates to individuals within a
company.

At the same time, however, RIM has sought to embrace the consumer market more
heartily with the release of devices such as the BlackBerry
Curve 8520, which includes
mechanical "Play/Pause/Mute" and "Previous/Next" keys for
music on its outer rim.

Nicholas Kolakowski is a staff editor at eWEEK, covering Microsoft and other companies in the enterprise space, as well as evolving technology such as tablet PCs. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Playboy, WebMD, AARP the Magazine, AutoWeek, Washington City Paper, Trader Monthly, and Private Air. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.